While I teach Suita Shimai some of the American dishes, she has taught
me how to make some Japanese dishes. Japanese food is the BEST!
Ho Ho Ho and a Happy December-can you believe it's already December!!
Thank
you everyone for your thoughts, prayers, letters, and support. I
love you all so much. I hope you are enjoying this holiday season-what a
wonderful time of the year it is.
This week, I have been studying faith in Jesus Christ. I
think that faith is one of the most under-studied topics, but yet it is
the first principle of our church. Why is it so important? We are told
that faith is a principle of power and that God works according to the
faith of men. In particular, I have been studying Elder Jeffery R.
Holland's talk: Lord, I Believe. I then read the scriptural account of
this story. I think when most people read it, they stop once the boy is
healed. However, I find great power in the verses that follow it. After
the healing, the disciples ask the Lord why they couldn't heal the boy.
The Lord said it was because they were lacking in faith. But with much
prayer and fasting, all things are possible.
I also love faith tatoebanashis (object lessons). I try
to come up with tatoebanashis all the time because it makes it so much
easier to understand a gospel principle. Here's a good one for faith.
It's called the trust fall. I think everyone knows what the trust fall
is. If you don't, go Google it. Personally, I can't do the trust fall,
but that's beside the point. For those who can do the trust fall, they
do it super fast and completely trust the other person to catch them.
However, even for those who are really good at the trust fall, if they
think about it for too long or wait and wonder if they person will
really catch them, they become scared and have a much more difficult
time with this task. So too is this true with our reliance on the Lord.
Just rely on Him now. There is no reason to wait.
As Sister Suita and I were doing weekly planning, we
came to the conclusion that this week was going to be huge in the making of
our White Christmas. We are not only teaching, but we are working on
finding those who will receive us. During personal study, I have been
studying finding. After much study and prayer, I took what I thought to
be an answer to prayer into our companion study. I told Sister Suita
that I saw a park on our mission map that I had never been to and asked
her what she thought. We prayed together and decided that we ought to
go. It was about a 40 minute bike ride (longer than we had expected) and
when we got to the park, there weren't a whole lot of people there.
Quite a few children playing soccer or playing on the play ground, but
really no parents or grandparents. It was about dinner time, so grabbed
a quick meal at Makudonarudo (McDonalds). I told Suita Shimai that we
ought to try dendoing (proselyting) around the general area. The Lord
needed us here for something, we just had to find out what it was. We
chose to go housing at an apartment complex. I don't know if you know
this or not, but unlike in America, most Japan houses have speakers by
the doorbell. So, you have to try to get them interested by just talking
to them over an intercom. I prayed like crazy for the faith to find a
kinjin (golden investigator). That was the most successful housing
experience I have ever had! One of the first doors we tried, a man came
and talked to us for about 10 minutes. Although he already had his
religion, he allowed us to share the Restoration of the Gospel with him.
About half way through the process, I got some children to open the
door. A few seconds later, a man came to the door. We shared the entire
Plan of Salvation with him. We talked for about 30 minutes and then his
wife came home and we talked with both of them for another 15 minutes. I
asked him if I could give him our cell phone number and he wrote it
down. Then, he asked me if I was ready for his number!! Incredible! We
are going to meet with him again this week. He is interested in learning
about our religion. This sweet and humbling experience strengthened my
personal testimony of faith. Most of the time, the Lord isn't just going
to place miracles right in our path. He has to see that we are going to
work for the miracle first.
I know that through faith, miracles are wrought. I love
Ether 12. It repeats over and over again that first is faith and then
second to it is the miracle. This order is so crucial. The Lord expects
us to exercises what faith we do have in order to perform the miracles
that He wants so badly to give us.
I love the Savior. I know that He lives and He is very
aware of us. Let's continue to go on in the greatest cause-the hastening
of God's work. Members are so powerful in missionary work. I have a
challenge for all those who read this letter (and don't stop reading
even though some of you might want to...). Before Christmas is over,
invite some of your friends to learn about the true meaning of Christmas
through family home evening, a church Christmas party, or some other
creative idea. I know that if you will do this, the Lord will bless you.
All you have to do is Be Strong And Do It (BSADI) :)
One Faith, One Prayer, One Heart, One Baptism...before Christmas,
Yamauchi Shimai
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